ORCID Identifiers

0000-0002-1531-7743

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

BMJ Open

Publication Date

9-1-2019

Abstract

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. To explore: (A) the underlying motivators and barriers to smoking cessation among young Arabic speaking smokers and (B) to examine the suitability and preferences for tobacco cessation interventions (specifically text messages) and study the possibility of enrollment methods for a randomised controlled study using text messages as an intervention for tobacco cessation. Design Qualitative research using focus group discussions and content analysis. Setting(s) Two universities, one of them is the first and foremost comprehensive national university in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The third setting is the largest hospital in the UAE and the flagship institution for the public health system in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. Participants Six focus group discussions with a total of 57 participants. Forty-seven men and 10 women. Fifty-three of them were current smokers. Results The analysis of six focus groups was carried out. Main themes arose from the data included: preferences for tobacco cessation interventions and acceptability and feasibility of text messaging as tobacco cessation intervention. Different motives and barriers for quitting smoking including shisha and dokha were explored. Conclusion Interventions using text messaging for smoking cessation have not been used in the Middle East and they could potentially be effective; however, tailoring and closely examining the content and acceptability of text messages to be used is important before the conduction of trials involving their use. Social media is perceived to be more effective and influential, with a higher level of penetration into communities of young smokers.

ISSN

2044-6055

Publisher

BMJ Publishing Group

Volume

9

Issue

9

First Page

e029144

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Keywords

behaviour change, Dokha, human behavior, qualitative, qualitative research, Shisha, smoking cessation, text messaging, tobacco cessation

Scopus ID

85071989629

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

yes

Open Access Type

Gold: This publication is openly available in an open access journal/series

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